It’s pretty late, but I wanted to post a few words about the first day. I’m not going to cover much on the conference because a) it’s hard to write in an entertaining way about most of this stuff – true about most conferences, and especially true for something titled The KIT – User Needs Analysis Process b) it regards a subject that is somewhat confidential, and c) I’d rather keep writing about my experience with Disney.
Last night, while some of us were sitting around with our beers, we were engaged in a bit of what might be called Disney-bashing. One of our group, a guy from England, protested a bit and said that Disney was really incredible from his point of view. We corrected ourselves – Disney is over the top in most ways, but that is the problem. When you expect perfection, from the master of details, you tend to get pretty persnickety about the details.
The Bad:
Some poor folks are stuck in buildings so far from the convention center that they’ve talked about hyjacking the little golf-cart shuttle that scoots around, always empty, and never stopping to offer anyone ride. Seriously, if they held a footrace along that path they’d have to have multiple water stops.
Internet. Yes, this is a convention center, and it’s used for business functions and all that, but evidently no one thinks that any of us need to get on the Internet. For $10 a day I can get a wired connection in my room. In the bar I can pay another $10 per day, or $5 per hour for wireless, but it’s not coordinated with my room connection so it’s an additional charge. In the convention hall the wireless appeared to be there, but I could not get it to work. Combine the need to check email, with the absense of Internet in the halls, with the long walk back to the room, and you have a bitter joke of a situation. After all, we don’t come to conventions to huddle in our rooms doing email. Give us a chance to do it everywhere and include it in the room.
What’s worse is that the service is flaky. Good, reliable wireless service is not rocket science. If you can find people willing to wear oven-hot character costumes out in the sun to pose with children, you can figure out how to provide guests with decent Internet service.
Somebody needs to buy Mickey a laptop with a wireless card. Then things would be working.
The Good:
The bar, Francisco’s, is the the best run operation in the place. The service is speedy and correct. Everyone speaks perfect english (elsewhere it’s a very mixed bad) and is extremely professional. Very, very nice. For those who I work for: I know this by speaking with others, and by observation as I sped by getting back to my room to get an Internet connection.
Everything is clean. Not regular clean, Disney clean. You will not find a lump of gum stuck to the pavement. If someone tosses a cigarette butt on the ground four people pounce on it with little whisk brooms and dust pans. The conference rooms are cleaned during the breaks, with fresh water and candy bowls. Again, very nice.
Oh yes, my bag was waiting for me last night so all is well on that front.
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Maybe you need to bring your own internet connection.
Look into EVDO service from your cellular provider. Our company uses Cingular and find reception good in most areas. I’d estimate speed is about 5x faster then dial-up, so it’s not broadband. The only poor reception areas are way out in the back woods and maybe in a bunker underground. But if you puchase internet 8 times a month you equal the cost of EVDO service. You could probably even get Quad to pay for it.
You have NO IDEA how close I’ve come to buying one of those edge cards. If I was single, I’d get one and cancel my broadband at home. The only downside is that it’s specific to one computer (I suppose you could share the connection, but ICS under Windows is not reliable).
I’m not thinking QG will pay for it, even if I was gone 8 days a month which I’m not. I don’t travel all that much anymore, so it be hard to justify in buiness terms.